Introduction
Culture is a very complicated notion and it can hardly be perceived absolutely identically by different people. Sometimes the views on culture may be even quite opposite. At this respect the views of DuBois and Hurston are quite good examples of the opposite attitude to cultural values. In their works “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and “The Souls of Black Folks”, respectively, the authors raise a kind of dilemma of the role of high culture and folk culture. On the one hand, DuBois underlines the necessity of the development of high culture, which he perceives as essential condition of effective development of the society leading to real equality, while Hurston affirms the strength of folk culture and its importance for people.
Views of Hurston as opposing to views of DuBois
On comparing the views of Hurston and DuBois, it is possible to say that they are common at least in one point, namely they pay a lot of attention to culture and it is an essential part of human existence and normal and happy life. In fact according to them, culture is a moving force of a person’s progress and whether individuals are willing or not they have to deal with culture as a very important and often determining factor in their lives.
In the same time, on analyzing deeper, it will be easy to find that the views of DuBois and Hurston, which make their attitude to culture quite different in their perception of culture and its entity since DuBois underlines the great role of high culture while Hurston is rather concerned about folk culture.
In such a situation, it would probably be better to support this statement with the analysis of the two works mentioned above where a lot of evidences supporting the statement may be found.
Speaking about Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, it should be said that the basic idea concerning the culture is the belief of the great role of folk culture as the basis of the society. The protagonist of the novel, Jamie is a girl who attempts to go beyond traditional and conservative culture of her country and her people. From the beginning she has to obey to the rules and norms of the community so even her first husband was chosen by her grandmother and there is nothing unusual or shocking for people surrounding her and eventually he marries Logan but soon she realizes that he is not a man she could live with.
Obviously she tends to overcome stereotypes, probably this is why she likes Joe Starks, “a citified, stylish dressed man with his hat sat at an angle that didn’t belong at these parts” (Hurston). Latter on she decides to marry him and go to Eatonville. In the same time, the depiction of Joe Starks and tendency of Jamie to contradict to a certain extent to folk culture is quite symbolic and only emphasizes the strength of folk culture as a decisive force in a person’s life.
By the way such a tendency of Jamie leads to her isolation from the rest of the community, even her closest friend Phoeby needs some explanations of her life.
Nonetheless, Jamie keeps folk traditions and culture. She remains obedient to her husband even despite the fact that their life becomes unbearable. She is often bitten by her husband but the power of old traditions and folk culture is so significant that she cannot leave him and change her life dramatically. The death of Joe is a great relief for her but still she has to show her grief and she “starches and irons her face” (Hurston) for funerals.
In fact until the moment she gets acquainted with Tea Cake she leads “grandma’s way of life”, which she dose not like. She says: “Dis ain’t no business proposition, and no race after property and titles. Dis is uh love game. Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now ah means to live mine” (Hurston). But even such a kind of rebellion against traditions and cultural norms of the town’s community scares her. In the same time her new life is emphatically simple and corresponds to folk culture symbolizing a kind of ideal life when a person leads simple life in accordance with folk culture. The latter may be treated as an author’s ideal everyone has to strive for.
Quite different view on culture may be found in the work “The Souls of Black Folks” by DuBois. In this work the author basically concerns on the problem of racial discrimination and lack of equality between white and black communities in the US. In the same time DuBois is close to Hurston in the idea of the great role of culture and at this respect the works analyzed are similar but what make them absolutely incompatible is the attitude of both authors to the culture. If Hurston, as it has already been found out, basically believes in the power of the folk culture than DuBois stands on the ground of the necessity to develop high culture. To put it more precisely she underlines the necessity to integrate black population into achievements of high culture and vice versa since she believes that the culture of African Americans has a really great potential.
In fact DuBois insist that economic prosperity and social stability is useless without cultural integration since, according to him for every individual “the end of his striving: to be a co-worker in the kingdom of culture, to escape both death and isolation, to husband and to use his best powers and his latent genius” (DuBois). In such a way the development and accessibility of high culture to every individual is considered to be essential for normal social life.
Furthermore, the author warns against the lack of high culture saying that “by the poverty and ignorance of his people, the Negro minister or doctor was tempted toward quackery and demagogy; and by the criticism of the other world, toward ideals that made him ashamed of his lowly tasks” (DuBois). Obviously the author sees in high culture the way of development of great civilization.
Like Hurston, DuBois underlines that an individual cannot live in isolation from the rest of the society with its moral norms and cultural traditions but he rather speaks about more sophisticated things than Hurston does, for instance his idea of double consciousness, “this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (DuBois). Consequently DuBois treats culture on the level of sophisticated psychological processes while Hurston tends to treat culture as a set of norms and traditions that had existed for decades and that a person has to obey by individual’s nature, as if culture is a kind of unwritten law.
A significant place in the cultural development of an individual DuBois leaves for education, which is an engine of culture and knowledge promotion, or as the author defines its goal to be “an organ of that fine adjustment between real life and the growing knowledge of life, an adjustment that makes the secret of civilization” (DuBois). The author also speaks about accessibility and necessity to get high education for all people. At this respect universities should play a great role since “the function of the university is not simply to teach bread-winning, or to furnish teachers for the public schools or to be a center of polite society” (DuBois) but it should teach the real life and provide knowledge in order to make people really equal.
Probably this is the idea that can hardly be found in Hurston work, since in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” folk culture is on the first place and folk culture is very conservative and does not accept some revolutionary changes that DuBois offers or the development of education, for instance, which is not considered as absolutely essential in folk tradition.
Conclusion
Thus, taking into consideration all above mentioned, it is possible to say that despite superficial similarities between the works of Hurston and DuBois the only main similarity is the importance of culture but their views on culture remain quite different. Naturally, one may contradict that culture is too complicated phenomenon that cannot be perceived universally in the same way but, being quite reasonable, such statement is hardly applicable for the case of Hurston and DuBois views on culture. In fact it is obvious that the former is rather concerned on folk culture and sustaining of old traditions that implies certain conservatism, while the latter claims to revolutionize the conservative attitude to culture and develop high culture that could be accessible to all people and such culture have all opportunities to become a force uniting all people of a definite country and the whole world.
Bibliography:
1. DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: McGraw Hill, 1999.
2. Hurston, Z.N. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Touchstone, 2000.
